


The Unforgotten Middle Child's Birthday

by VFDBaudelaireFile13



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV), A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Protective Siblings, Sibling Bonding, Sibling bickering, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-15 00:04:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21024455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VFDBaudelaireFile13/pseuds/VFDBaudelaireFile13
Summary: Klaus Baudelaire has some worries when his sisters don't mention his birthday at all. He believes that being the middle child makes him more likely to be forgotten, unappreciated, and ignored.





	The Unforgotten Middle Child's Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> this is super late. But I had this planned since August. I wanted to post this on Louis Hyne's birthday, but life got in the way. 
> 
> Happy late 18th Birthday Louis Hynes!
> 
> and 
> 
> Happy late Klaus day to the ASOUE fandom!
> 
> Love y'all,  
Sue.

** _The Unforgotten Middle Child's Birthday:_ **

Klaus Baudelaire sat near the graves of an old friend and old enemy. He sat there in silence pondering to himself. Finally, he looked only towards Kit Snicket’s grave and began to speak. “You know...it’s my birthday today,” he said aloud. He felt silly talking to Kit’s grave because it felt like he was talking to himself but he felt like he needed someone to talk to. Strangely enough, he felt like he couldn’t talk to his elder sister, Violet or his younger sister, Sunny about what was bugging him. Because it was _his sisters_ who were bugging him. “It’s my birthday today…” he repeated sadly. “My fourteenth birthday...and it seems like they both forgot..._again._”

Now, Klaus Baudelaire understood why his sisters both forgot his birthday last year. They were busy trying to rescue their friends, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire and they were tasked with breaking Kit’s brother, Jacques Snicket, out of jail in the Village of Fowl Devotees. He didn’t blame his sisters for forgetting his thirteenth birthday, he couldn’t even if he wanted to because _ he _also forgot his birthday last year. But this year, Klaus felt like it was different. They were in a much better place than they had been in a while. It was only the three Baudelaires and Kit’s daughter, Beatrice II. It was just them. Their lives had settled down. It’s not an unreasonable request to have that his sisters remember his goddamn birthday. 

He felt like most middle children. Unwanted and ignored. As he sat staring mournfully at Kit’s grave, he thought back to all the Baudelaires’ trials and tribulations, wondering what he had done to help them get out of any of it. It was mainly Violet and in some cases, like with the elevator shaft, it was Sunny. He frowned. He didn’t want to think that his sisters had forgotten his birthday again this year because he was the useless member of the Baudelaire clan but Klaus was at a low point this morning. He woke up to no “happy birthday”s, he didn’t wake up to nicely fashioned homemade gifts, not even a mention of a special meal today. Both his sisters went about their days as if there was nothing special about it.

“Maybe I’m overreacting…” he said aloud to Kit’s grave. “Maybe my birthday doesn’t matter,” 

As he sat there in silence, he could have sworn he could hear laughter. Villainous laughter. Klaus knew it was all in his head as he turned his head to glare at the grave next to Kit’s. “No one’s talking to you!” Klaus yelled at Olaf’s grave. “It’s your fucking fault all three of us forgot last year! You fucking rat bastard! I wish that my sisters and I would’ve been the ones to end your pitiful excuse for a life! Not that fucking old bastard with the ridiculous beard!” Klaus rubbed his eyes as he felt tears of anger slowly falling down his face. 

_ His sisters wouldn’t forget his birthday...would they? _

__________________________________________________________________

Violet Baudelaire had just successfully put Beatrice II down for a nap which was not an easy feature. She sighed as she rubbed her face. She was honestly glad that she had both of her younger siblings to help her. Klaus was currently outside doing his daily chores, taking care of the sheep, doing the laundry, and finding coconuts for Sunny to cook with. Speaking of Sunny, she was in the kitchen at the moment. Violet assumed she was making lunch. 

Sunny was mainly in charge of the cooking seeing as Violet had a Spencer-Shay effect whenever she cooked, this meant that whatever she was preparing would magically burn or be mysteriously set ablaze. Her siblings joked that she’d be able to set _ cereal _on fire. Klaus didn’t always burn the meals that he cooked, he had the opposite problem, he always under-cooked his meals and the very few that he made right were bland and distasteful. Both older Baudelaires realized real quick to leave all culinary duties to Sunny. Sunny didn’t mind, though. It was never a chore or a job to her, she liked it. It was her skill. 

So it was never odd when Sunny would prefer to spend most of her day in the kitchen, so to Violet, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until she heard a loud metal _ clank! _And then she heard a loud frustrated growl coming from the kitchen.

“Fuck!” Sunny yelled frustrated.

“Sunny?” Violet called out, checking on her youngest sibling. 

“No!” Sunny yelled towards her sister, peeking out the kitchen. “Where’s Klaus?” she asks looking around the room. 

“He’s outside, silly,” Violet replied as Bea woke up and began crying. “...and now, Bea’s awake, thanks Sunny.” 

“Sorry not sorry,” Sunny replied blocking Violet out of the kitchen.

“Sunny, we need to have everything ready for tonight,” Violet rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Sunny. What’s the issue?”

“Birthday surprise,” Sunny replied simply. “Don’t say nothing,” 

“What are you trying to do?” Violet asked as she held Bea in her arms entering the kitchen which was a complete and utter disaster.

Violet looked around and saw that the Baudelaire’s entire kitchen was covered in several ingredients that Sunny needed to make homemade bread. Yeast and flour had covered every surface in the kitchen. Violet noticed that there were five loaves of homemade bread. On the floor, there was unchurned butter, milk, and a few cracked eggs. Mixing bowls and other kitchen utensils were scattered all around the kitchen. Sunny was covered in milk, eggs, and flour. Violet looked to her younger sister and the mess in the kitchen.

“Sunny? What happened in here?” Violet asked concerned. “It looks like a tornado hit our kitchen!” 

“Bread pudding,” Sunny explained. “Harder than it looks,”

Violet looked at her baby sister and then at the kitchen once more. She gave Sunny a small smile realizing that Sunny was trying to do the one thing their parents had failed to do on Klaus’ twelfth birthday, which was _ correctly _ make bread pudding. The Baudelaire parents had tried and failed to make bread pudding for their son’s birthday. When it failed, they had promised their only son that his _ next _birthday would be extra special.

Although if you know the history of the three Baudelaire orphans you would know that that had not happened. When Klaus turned thirteen, not only did he and both of his sisters _ forget _but because Count Olaf disguised himself as a detective, he was successfully able to convince the entire Village of Fowl Devotees (which had been the Baudelaires’ guardians at the time) that the Baudelaires had murdered Count Olaf. So Klaus was incarcerated in a deluxe jail cell for a large portion of his birthday. And he spent the rest of his thirteenth birthday on the run from the law and missing his friends, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, deeply. Although he had been relieved they had been rescued.

So Sunny plans to make up for both his twelfth and thirteenth birthday but she was learning what her parents had learned two years prior. Making bread pudding was harder than it looks.

“Is there some way I can help?”

“You can’t cook,” Sunny reminded her.

Violet rolled her eyes. “Thanks, sis.”

“Truth hurts,” Sunny replied sarcastically. “I just need a taste tester and someone to distract him,”

Violet and Sunny smiled deviously as they both looked stared at Beatrice II. She was the definition of the perfect distraction. When she was born, all three Baudelaires took a quick liking to her but Klaus had made the strongest attachment to the young infant. When Beatrice was first born, Klaus was the first one, other than Kit, herself, to hold Beatrice and those first few seconds had created a strong, unbreakable bond. Klaus didn’t see himself as Beatrice’s older brother...he saw himself more as a father figure towards the infant which both his sisters thought was super adorable. Both Baudelaire sisters remembered the days before the fire that orphaned them, where their brother was just a weak, book-obsessed nerd. But sometime during the children’s unfortunate events, he had become more of a protector, taking on the role of the man of the house. They wouldn’t know until they return to civilization and leave the island, but both Sunny and Violet believed that his behavior would show this more since the addition of Beatrice II into their family. So his attachment to her will be his own undoing when it came to keeping Sunny’s birthday surprise a secret.

Just as the two sisters had devised a plan, Klaus made his way inside their island home. Sunny quickly ran into the kitchen as Violet nonchalantly blocked the entrance from Klaus. 

“What are you doing?” Klaus asked confused as he tried to walk passed his older sister.

“Can’t go in there,” Violet replied, placing her hand on his forehead to keep him at bay.

“Why not?” 

“We’ve been...banned,” 

“Banned?” 

Violet nodded.

“Why are we banned from the kitchen? It’s the kitchen...where the food is...which is what I want. So if you’d politely move…” Klaus replied as he tried to move passed his sister again.

“Bro, I’m doing you a favor by standing guard. Sunny still has a sharp set of teeth and she isn’t afraid to use it,”

“She can’t ban us from the kitchen for no reason!” 

“Oh, she has a reason,” 

Sunny poked her head out. “I always have a reason,” she said as she popped her head back in.

“And that reason would be?” 

“I...Well...you see,” Violet began trying to come up with a believable lie. She knew her brother was intelligent but she also knew that he was quite gullible. “It’s kind of embarrassing… I was trying to make…” Violet paused. She nearly said ‘pudding’ and then she nearly said ‘cake’. She was trying to think of a food that didn’t have anything to do with Klaus or birthdays. She thought about it for a good minute and sighed remembering her siblings' favorite insult towards her when it came to her cooking. “...I was making...well it doesn’t really matter what I was trying to make...because...I...I somehow made it explode,” 

“Explode?” Klaus asked incredulously.

“Explode,” Violet said simply.

Sunny popped her head out again. She nodded. “Explode,” she confirmed sneaking Violet a look indicating that Sunny knew she could lie better than that.

Klaus was speechless. “But...how…”

Violet shrugged her shoulders. “Honestly, is it really out of the realms of possibility for me?” she asked her brother.

“Well...no,” he replied. “Most definitely not,” 

Violet took offense to this but decided to let it go. She handed Bea to Klaus. “How about you and your favorite little buddy go spend the day on the beach...outside.” 

“Why?” 

“It’ll be good for you...for both of you!”

Sunny popped her head out again. “Yep...sunshine very good for babies. I would know I was one not too long ago.” She popped her head back inside the kitchen.

Klaus slowly nodded his head as he took the infant in his arms. “They’re both crazy, aren’t they, Bea?” he cooed at the infant, who giggled back at him. “We’re the only sane ones in this family.”

Violet laughed at this. “I wouldn’t describe any Baudelaire as ‘sane’,” she muttered as he chuckled taking Bea outside to the beach. 

“You wanna go see mommy?” Klaus asked Bea once he was outside. Bea nodded. He sighed. He enjoyed visiting Kit’s grave, he liked to take Bea there as much as possible and when he needed someone other than his sisters to talk to, he’d go to Kit’s grave as he did this morning. He just hated the fact that Olaf’s grave laid right there, next to Kit’s. He always wondered why he and Violet didn’t bury him in the darker side of the island where the Baudelaires rarely went. He walked the long way as he info dumped on Bea on the latest book that he had found from the latest storm. 

Once Klaus got to the graves, he sat down on the large rock that sat at a good distance from the two graves. He looked down at the infant. He gave a small smile. “You didn’t forget my birthday, did you?”

The infant looked up at him and giggled, reaching up for his glasses. 

“I’ll take that as a no,” he replied smiling down at the infant. Taking off his glasses and allowing Bea to play with them under his watchful eye. 

________________________________________________________________

Violet and Sunny began to move fast. They didn’t know how long Klaus would stay outside with Bea. So with each variation of a bread pudding recipe, both Baudelaire sisters tasted each one. Some were sour, some were soggy. When Sunny allowed Violet to put the next batch into the stove, it burnt. Sunny was both surprised by this since that’s all she let Violet do but a small part of her wasn’t surprised. After twelve tries, Sunny looked to Violet. 

“This one has to work,” Sunny replied.

“This would be number thirteen,” Violet muttered.

“Thirteen is unlucky...but so are we,” Sunny began, “So maybe the two ‘unlucky’s will cancel each other out,”

“That’s...that’s not how that works, Sunny,” 

“Yeah huh. It’s like negatives,” 

Violet sighed. “Let’s just cross our fingers,” 

Sunny and Violet watched eagerly at their last attempt at making bread pudding cooked. Both sisters were worried. They hadn’t spent all day making Klaus _ think _his birthday was the furthest from their minds for no reason. They both wanted to surprise him. That’s why Violet had spent the past few weeks constructing an outdoor library for her brother, using as many items as she could from the arboretum to make sure it could withstand storms. Sunny had spent days thinking of what to prepare for her brother and today had finally decided on bread pudding since that was the last birthday meal that her parents had tried to make for Klaus and she remembered how disappointed he was when it didn’t turn out just right.

Finally, as the dish finished baking. Both sisters glanced at each other nervously as they each took a small bite. Both Baudelaire girls smiled happily when they realized that Sunny had finally done it. She had finally made the bread pudding perfectly. She smiled down at her dish and smiled up at her older sister. “Thanks, Vi,”

“For what?” Violet asked laughing. “I didn’t do much,” 

“Moral support,” Sunny replied.

Both Baudelaire sisters hurriedly finished cleaning the mess that had occurred earlier that day in the kitchen as they took turns keeping a watchful eye for Klaus. They were not going to let him spoil the surprise that they had been working so hard on creating. After they finished cleaning, both sisters tried to decorate their dining room the best they could for a birthday with what they had. 

____________________________________________________________

Klaus had spent most the afternoon sulking as he revisited Kit’s grave allowing Bea to see her mother and her biological father even if he despised the man. He had to thank him for Bea’s existence. Without Bea in his life, he’d be more lost than he already is. After they spent around a good hour just chatting with Kit, Klaus would translate for Bea since she was beginning to speak in a similar way that his younger sister had. He took Bea to a spot on the island where the water was shallow and he and Bea spent some time swimming and laughing. He was trying to forget all about how his sisters had forgotten his birthday. But he couldn’t let it go. He looked at the smiling, giggling infant in his arms. “You know what,” he said to Bea, “if they forgot my birthday, then I’ll forget their birthdays,” he said triumphantly as Bea simply gave him a confused look. “What? It’s only fair,” he replied when Bea didn’t say anything in reply. 

As the sun was slowly setting, he frowned. “Time to go inside,” he told Bea who looked disappointed. “Time to have a normal meal on this normal day,” 

As he trudged along the beach back to the Baudelaires’ island home, he felt a few tears forming in his eyes. He just couldn’t believe that Violet and Sunny had completely forgotten his birthday again.

He finally reached the door of their home and noticed that it seemed dark inside. He didn’t think too much of it as he opened the door and jumped when he heard two voices yelling. 

“Surprise!” Violet shouted jumping up and down.

“Happy Birthday!” Sunny shouted, also jumping up and down.

Klaus, who reacted to the sudden noises by holding Bea tighter to him in order to protect her, sighed in relief realizing that he and Bea were not in any danger. He looked to his older sister and then to his younger sister, with a big happy smile. As he felt happy tears forming in his eyes. “You guys are fucked up you know that,” Klaus said smiling. 

“Yeah. We take pride in it,” Sunny replied hugging her big brother.

“Wait? Did you really think that we forgot your birthday?” Violet asked in a slightly offended tone.

Klaus turned his head a bit embarrassed. “M-maybe…” 

Violet looked at her younger brother. “We would never forget your birthday…” she began.

“Again,” Sunny pointed out.

“Yes, we would never forget your birthday ever again. Last year was a fluke. It’s never going to be that bad ever again,” Violet explained.

Klaus nodded as he shifted Bea into one arm, picking up his younger sister in the other and motioning to Violet to join the Baudelaire group hug. The middle Baudelaire embraced the three most important people in his life for what felt like an eternity before Violet pulled away.

Sunny hopped down from her brother’s grasp as she grabbed hold of his hand pulling him into the kitchen. “Close your eyes,” Sunny ordered.

“What?” Klaus said.

“No peeking,” Violet replied as Bea stood up as straight as she could and placed her tiny hands on his glasses as Violet slowly steered him into the kitchen.

When his sisters finally allowed him to open his eyes, Klaus felt like he wanted to cry more tears of blissful joy as he looked down at the bread pudding that Sunny had prepared with Violet’s help.

“You…” he began as he stared at the bread pudding. He handed Bea to Violet as he wiped a few happy tears from his face. His heart ached for two reasons, one was that he missed his parents deeply, the other was because he had the audacity to believe that both of his sisters would forget his birthday. He knew why they forgot last year and he felt silly for believing that they would forget his birthday when they weren’t in dire situations. “You…”

Sunny nodded as Klaus knelt down and scooped up his little sister in a big bear hug. Sunny could see that Klaus was crying, but she knew that he was happy crying. “You made bread pudding for my birthday just like they did two years ago,”

“Yep. This time it’s edible though,” Sunny remarked. “Violet helped me,” 

“Well, let’s eat!” Violet suggested as she put Bea in her high chair. 

The Baudelaires enjoyed the rest of the evening eating the bread pudding and telling stories about their past lives with their parents. Violet and Klaus shared several stories that happened before Sunny was born. While Sunny showed off her amazing memory when she told stories that her elder siblings couldn’t believe that she remembered. But with each story, both elder Baudelaires saw that she remembered the details correctly. They shared stories about their happier lives for what seemed like forever. Eventually, when they couldn’t think of any new stories to share, Violet walked Klaus out to where his outdoor library was which made the middle Baudelaire hug his older sister as tightly as he hugged Sunny.

Klaus realized now that his sister’s new his birthday was coming up for a while, they had both prepared surprises for him and even expertly fooled him into thinking that they had actually forgotten. Maybe it was the middle child doubt that caused him to believe this. Maybe it was his insecurity as a whole. Or maybe it was the fact that he was the most gullible of the three Baudelaire orphans. But either way, he spent the rest of the night knowing that he was loved and appreciated. He felt like a damn fool for ever thinking otherwise.


End file.
